Potatoes for St. Patty's Day

In honor of the Irish tradition, we'll be eating cabbage and potatoes tonight! While we have no fancy plans for the cabbage, I wanted to try a new twist on the potatoes. To be perfectly honest, the impetus came from the need to use the rutabagas and turnips in our fridge.

We receive 95% of our produce from Bountiful Baskets, which means that every two weeks we are surprised by a random selection of locally grown fruits and vegetables. We pick up our produce from a local parking lot, where a farmer's delivery truck brings boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables priced by weight. We have the option of choosing organic and non-organic items, and can add weekly specials that range from homemade breads and cookies to pressed oils and flavored tortilla wraps.

Last week, we received a plethora of root vegetables. It's both exciting and intimidating to discover a "new" fruit or vegetable. Previous "discoveries" for us have included box choy, fennel, and vanilla bean (still waiting on a good recipe for that one!).

This week's discovery: rutabaga.

I have two favorite resources for learning how to store, prepare, and eat a new produce item: www.allrecipes.com and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (which has kind of become my kitchen bible). Tonight's new recipe comes from All Recipes:

Mashed Potato, Rutabaga, And Parsnip Casserole With Caramelized Onions

But what about the turnips?!

I made a few subsitutions in this recipe:

1. Turnips instead of parsnips - Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" book assured me that parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas are almost always interchangeable.
2. Vegetable broth instead of chicken broth

Another recommendation I would make is to SAVE THE BROTH! The directions tell you to drain the vegetables after boiling, but why waste perfectly good stock for soup? *Note to self for next time!

The results of the new kitchen experiment were decidedly yummy! Rutabagas and turnips add a touch more flavor to the mash, and the caramelized onions are a delicious topping. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What are your favorite ways to prepare potatoes?
Do you have go-to resources for new and/or unfamiliar food items?

Eating Green: Super Smoothies

Not everyone likes vegetables. While as a vegetarian this can be a difficult concept for me to grasp, I understand (perhaps because my husband is one of the pickiest eaters I know!). Smoothies are a great way to "sneak" in some healthy greens on a daily basis.

Tracy Russell's website has been a fantastic resource for smoothie recipes and easy-to-find facts about nutrient-rich (and tasty!) fruits and vegetables. Her recipes are sorted by ingredient, allowing you to search for combinations that you already have in your fridge. Russell also includes variations for more "brave" and "experienced" smoothie consumers, throwing in dandelion greens, kale, spinach, or parsley whenever possible. We like to add a boost of protein to our smoothies by throwing in a tablespoon of whey powder.

Don't be fooled by the colors. These smoothies taste just like fruit-flavored deserts (and they make a great breakfast on-the-run)!

What do/would you put in your smoothie?